How you can make 2016 your best business year yet!

As the New Year kicks in, it’s the perfect time to step back and reflect on the last twelve months in your business; the ups and downs, the tricks and the treats.

It’s a good time to analyse past business performance, learn from your experiences over the past twelve months and use your insights to start you off; thinking and planning for a brand new year ahead.

Don’t you want business goals that will really get you moving on those dark January mornings?

The trick is having some focus;

1. What’s the big picture for 2016?

What do you want your business to be and do differently in 2016? Has your original vision for your business, or your strategy for last year been achieved? If not, what’s stopping you or getting in the way?

You could start by asking and answering these questions;

What’s changing in our industry or sector?
Where is our company strongest? – Product? Delivery? Customer service?
What are our customers buying from us and why?
Which new services or products are we planning to introduce this year?
Do we know if our current marketing is effective?
What are we most excited about that will take our business forward this year?

2. “Teamwork makes the dream work” – Bang Gae

Organise an away-day or a couple of in-house sessions devoted only to growing your business in 2016. Working on your vision as a cohesive team gives you an opportunity to generate and share many more ideas that one or two individuals can ever come up with. You can then quickly work out as a team, who can realistically do what, by when. Suddenly there’s a plan coming together and you’re all taking part and sharing responsibility. Having an external facilitator can help you to structure these sessions and keep the focus on the future of the business and on pulling together the plan that will get you to achieve your goals.

3. Draw up your 2016 Business Plan

If you’ve got one, you’re already ahead of the game. But many businesses don’t. According to new research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, Britain’s small firms could be missing out on a whopping £25bn in revenue by not having a business plan to guide decision making.

It doesn’t need to be complex, but it does need to cover the basics; market size, projected sales revenue, costs, marketing strategy. If you need to raise funds or approach investors for additional finance, you’ll certainly need a business plan in place. And if you’ve got ideas for growing your business by pooling your energies as a team, your business plan brings these together. If you need help putting one together, we can help.

You aim should be have a clear overview of what success in 2016 looks like, what your priorities will be and a plan that breaks down those big, exciting goals into smaller, smart and achievable ones, month by month.

4. Go all out to make it happen!

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment” – Jim Rohn

With a plan in place, you’ll know where you’re going and what needs to be done, by whom. What better start to 2016 than that? Remember to track and review your progress in 30, 60 and 90 days so there’s always forward momentum and do also make time to celebrate your successes along the way.

Good luck and Happy New Year!

About Helen Willson

Helen Willson, MBA, is a Marketing & PR Consultant, Strategist and an Accredited ibd-uk Business Adviser and Mentor working with private & public sector organisations and businesses from SME's to large global corporates, across a range of different sectors and industries, supporting them to create successful strategies, raise their profile, attract new customers and win awards.